mojoPortal Tips: Training Your Users

mojoPortal implementers are, for the most part, IT professionals or enthusiasts with a significant amount of experience and knowledge regarding content management systems and web applications. Those same individuals can become extremely nonplussed when attempting to teach less tech-savvy users how to leverage this amazing system to support their business workflow, and benefit their business.

This can lead to lengthy e-mail exchanges, deep-breathing exercises, and a desperate longing for an extended soak in the sauna, accompanied by primal screaming. Let’s talk about some ways to avoid that stress level, and maintain a positive relationship with your users.

Hopefully, by the time you’ve designed and implemented the mojoPortal instance for your users, you’ve got a pretty good idea of the business need the site is meant to address. If your users present you with a change or addition to the business need after you’ve implemented the initial design, it’s a good idea to sit down and map out the business process itself before implementing any further changes, and review it with your users – that way you’re all on the same page.

Once you’ve got the business process outlined, and functionality implemented, run through the steps a user would need to accomplish in order to complete a business task. Write down each step; make a note of any special permissions or requirements that each step requires. Convert your notes to a step-by-step document (if a screenshot seems appropriate, by all means include it).

Now that you’ve got your document, give it to one of your power users – let them go through it, step-by-step, and see if they’re able to successfully complete the task. If so – hurray! You’ve now got a user who can help communicate the process to other users, and a useful document that will go a long way toward keeping you from hiding in that hot tub indefinitely.

Author Spotlight

Carole Bennett

Carole Bennett is the founder and principal of IndigoTea. As a professional IT consultant, Carole has provided solutions for companies as diverse as Verizon, Frito-Lay, Capital One Auto Finance, and Zales Jewelers, parlaying a unique talent for acting as a translator between the worlds of business challenges and technology solutions.
She considers multi-tasking skills gained from simultaneously 1) managing a fire performance troupe, 2) raising a family, and 3) working as a full-time IT consultant excellent preparation for her current career incarnation as the driving force behind IndigoTea. "Fire-breathing redhead on a mission" is not just a metaphorical description!